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Abstract: Mushroom size is important in fresh marketing and controlling picking costs. Sales of fresh mushrooms have steadily increased over the last 12 years, currently representing 54% of all mushroom sales in the U.S. (Anonymous, 1980). Consumers of fresh mushrooms demand high quality mushrooms of uniform size. In some markets, a premium price is paid for large mushrooms. Mushroom size also directly influences picking costs (Ermel, 1958). Larger mushrooms represent a direct cost savings to growers due to decreased picking costs. Considerable work has been done on casing moisture, size, and dry weight of sporophores. Bels-Koning (1950) reported soils with better water holding capacity resulted in higher yields if sufficient aeration was present. Reeve et al. (1959) found that size consistently decreased with decreasing soil moisture. Also, the lower casing moistures produced mushrooms with a lower moisture content. Flegg (1965) found that the number of fruiting bodies did not change as the casing moisture increased, but size and yield increased significantly. His results indicated the improved size and yield resulted from more water in the sporophores, not dry matter. Depth of the casing layer may also influence mushroom size. Murphy (1976) demonstrated that mushroom size and yield improved as the casing depth was increased from 0.5 to 2.0 inches. The effect of varying compost moisture at spawning on mushroom size has not been reported. Many growers believe dry composts produce small mushrooms. Gerrits (1972) suggested compost moisture varied at fill has no effect on mushrooms size. Gormely (1969) reported low moisture compost produced mushrooms with a higher dry matter content when compared to wetter compost. Cropping experiments were initiated to study the influence of compost moisture and casing moisture on size, yield, and dry weight of mushrooms.
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